Neurochondrin (also known as its murine homologue, Norbin) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the NCDN gene.[5][6]
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This gene encodes a leucine-rich cytoplasmic protein, which is highly similar to a mouse protein norbin that negatively regulates Ca/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II phosphorylation and may be essential for spatial learning processes. Several alternatively spliced transcript variants of this gene have been described.[6]
Norbin can modulate signaling activity and expression of metabotropic glutamate receptor 5; modulating mice with targeted deletion of NCDN in the brain have phenotypic traits usually found in the rodent models of schizophrenia, including disruptions in prepulse inhibition.[7] Furthermore, norbin protein expression is altered in the schizophrenia brain.[8] Norbin also plays a role in regulating antimicrobial responses in neutrophils.[9]
Neurochondrin proteins induce hydroxyapatite resorptive activity in bone marrow cells resistant to bafilomycin A1, an inhibitor of macrophage- and osteoclast-mediated resorption. Expression of the gene is localised to chondrocyte, osteoblast, and osteocyte in the bone and to the hippocampus and Purkinje cell layer of cerebellum in the brain.[10]
